HÀ NỘI — Shares declined on the HCM Stock Exchange on Tuesday as large-cap stocks were hit by profit-taking after the market advanced for two consecutive sessions.

The benchmark VN Index lost 1.05 per cent to end at 837.28 points. It gained total 1.8 per cent in the previous two days.

More than 192 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.04 trillion (US$179.5 million).

The trading figures posted a decline of 2.6 per cent in volume and 10.4 per cent in value compared to Monday.

The market breadth was negative with 185 declining stocks, 87 gaining ones and 45 others ending flat.

The VN30 Index, which tracks the performance of 30 biggest stocks by market capitalisation and trading liquidity, fell 0.70 per cent to 831.62 points.

The VN30 basket was dominated by 21 declining large-cap shares while only six stocks made gains.

Investors’ profit-taking was blamed for the decline of the stock market as it strongly hit large-cap stocks, which had played an important part in pushing the benchmark VN Index to its 10-year high of 845 points on Monday.

Among those declining large-caps, FLC Faros Construction (ROS) slumped 4.6 per cent after having soared more than 89 per cent since September 27.

Investors were also disappointed by the company’s performance in the third quarter and in the first nine months of the year.

FLC Faros announced its post-tax profit for the third quarter fell 20.8 per cent to VNĐ62.33 billion, cutting its nine-month combined post-tax profit by 10.3 per cent to VNĐ208 billion.

Other large-cap stocks that also underperformed on the pressure of profit-taking included Coteccons Construction Co (CTD), PetroVietnam Gas (GAS), food and beverage producer Masan (MSN) and brewer Sabeco (SAB).

Among those stocks, MSN edged down 0.8 per cent following its four-session increase of total 7.1 per cent.

According to analysts at Bảo Việt Securities Co, the benchmark index is forecast to fall further in the next sessions as the market lacks supportive business information and large-cap stocks show signs of losing momentum, resulting in the high selling pressure across all stocks.

The market breadth became more negative as large-cap stocks were not strong enough to lift the market, making investor sentiment weaker on worries over the slump of the index, BVSC analyst Trần Xuân Bách said in the company’s report.

Cash flow would still focus on large-cap stocks as the market was showing a big divergence among all stocks, signaling rough trading sessions ahead, he said, adding that the VN Index could fall back to the range of 825-830 points.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX Index lost 0.77 per cent to end at 105.16 points. The northern market index has declined by total 1.2 per cent after the last two sessions.

More than 44.4 million shares were traded on the northern market, worth VNĐ497 billion. — VNS